Action Comics #119 (of 1000000)
This Only a Sample of What Happens When Clark Kent Tries to Become Superman for a Day
April 30th, 1948
Volume:
Publisher:
Number:
119
(of 904)
Name:
This Only a Sample of What Happens When Clark Kent Tries to Become Superman for a Day
Aliases:
Cover date:
April 30th, 1948
Store date:
February 18th, 1948
- Superman for a Day! (Superman)
- Treasure Trove! (Congo Bill)
- Traps Killer Bear with Invisible Light (Captain Tootsie)
- Concert for Crime! (Zatara)
- Cabbie Casey
- Cooking With Gas (text story by Charles Winslow)
- The Birthday That Backfired! (Vigilante)
- Jerry Jitterbug
Superman (as Clark Kent!) is getting hit by a car driven by a bunch of crooks. Note the glasses in front of Superman's cape.
Wounded war pilot Jim Banning (although his name is misspelled as 'Blanning' in the first two frames) has founded a helicopter delivery service to provide jobs for himself and other pilots wounded during the war. As Lois and Clark are covering the story, they see one of Banning's helicopters grab a jewelry truck and fly off with it.
Slipping away from Lois, Clark changes to Superman and forces the helicopter to release the truck, but while he is saving the truck, the crooks escape. Refusing to believe that Banning and his men are criminals, Clark vows to get to the bottom of the story. In order to be able to work freely as Superman, he tries to distract Lois with a story about a flood in another part of the country.
Lois, however, has other plans. She wants Clark to pose as Superman to lure the crooks into a trap where she will then phone the police. Clark has no choice but to go along with the ruse and ends up 'pretending' to be Superman.
The crooks fall for Lois's story and show up at the expected location, and Clark uses some clever tricks to make Lois think he is faking Superman's powers but, naturally, the plan goes wrong and the crooks take Lois hostage in the helicopter and escape.
Tracking the helicopter to its base, Superman discovers that rival helicopter fleet owner Martin Grew has painted his machines with Banning's logo and staged crimes to try to get Banning arrested so he (Grew) can take over Banning's fleet at a knockdown price.
Superman manages to foil Grew's plans by infusing a cloud with paint remover. When Grew's disguised fleet flies through the cloud, their true identities are revealed, and the real Banning fleet uses their war piloting skills to capture them, with a bit of help from Superman, of course.
